


(Can't Find My) Way Home

by LadyShae



Series: A Promise Kept [1]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types
Genre: My computer is dying and I really don't want to lose this so I'm uploading it here, WIP, shadowhunters au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:14:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,472
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24988900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyShae/pseuds/LadyShae
Summary: When a long dead Shadowhunter falls out of a portal into their living room Magnus and Alec learn that their love story doesn't look the same in all dimensions.
Relationships: Alec Lightwood/Original Female Character(s), Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Magnus Bane/Original Female Character(s)
Series: A Promise Kept [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808923
Kudos: 18





	(Can't Find My) Way Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU WIP that is built entirely in snippets and parts right now. I'm uploading it because my computer is dying and I've already lost a huge chunk of a story for a different fandom. 
> 
> If you have questions/comments, just ask.

Magnus blinks to clear his vision, his head spinning a little from being pulled under a memory spell without warning.

He really needs to stop getting involved in every mystery that happens to appear in front of him. Strange portals carrying half dead Shadowhunters will never lead to anything good and someday Magnus will learn that lesson. Apparently that day is not today, given his current predicament. 

The darkness around him begins to lighten and he’s shocked to be looking at himself. Of all the things he could’ve imagined, this was not on the list.

“Hello, Magnus.” 

His own voice calls to him, his cat-eyes glowing in the dim light around him. Something about the vision looks wrong and it takes Magnus a moment to realize that he is looking at a reflection in a mirror. He has a bad feeling about whatever it is he’s about to hear.

“Firstly, I’m sorry about your wards. This kind of Seelie magic is a bit of a battering ram. There shouldn’t be any residual damage but if there is, it shouldn't be hard to fix. Assuming you're as magnificent as I am, which I'm sure you are.” The reflection smiles, something sad and lost hidden in the expression. It’s the look of someone completely heartbroken trying to hide it in bravado. Magnus knows the look well.

“I know that this is…unconventional, but I don’t know what else to do. I had to send her somewhere safe. After everything else I’ve lost, I can’t watch my Meena die. The Queen promised that you would be at least acquainted with Meena, but you know how tricky that little harpy can be. If you don’t recognize Meena, take her to the Wander Wood. To Meliorn. He’ll understand. Now, on to business. I have one last message for her if you’d be so kind. Just give her this memory from here onward when she wakes up.”

Magnus watches his reflection struggle with his composure for a few moments before he brings his unglamoured eyes back up. They’re burning with fire despite the complete devastation that’s clearly breaking him apart.

“Meena, I know how angry you must be with me right now but please listen. There is nothing left in this world that is as important to me as keeping you safe, sayang. You are the only thing I have left that is good and alive and I can’t- I promised Alexander I would keep you safe, no matter the cost.”

Magnus has a sudden sinking feeling in his guts at the mention of Alec. It’s obvious from his reflections’ tone that his Alec is gone and Magnus’ heart breaks for this other version of himself. He’s almost lost his own husband a few times and the weight of that grief is still too much to bear some days. 

“I don’t have much time. Sending you across worlds will take all the magic I have to spare but I have to do it. I promised him, sayang. I couldn’t save him, but I can save you. This is the last thing I can do for him and I hope you understand.”

Magnus understands completely. There is nothing on this Earth that could stop him from fulfilling Alec’s dying wish when that day comes.

“I hope-” The other Magnus takes a deep breath and sighs. “I don’t even know. I’m going to make Asmodeus pay for what he’s done to us. I know how to close the rift and I’m sorry I lied about that. Lightwoods break noses and accept the consequences, right?”

Magnus’s eyes are burning with tears but he can’t look away from the mirror and the desperate man on the other side of it.

“Never forget how much I have always loved you. How much Alexander loved you. You are the best of me, my sweet Angel-born. I am a man that deserved Alexander’s love because of you. Remember that, sayang. You are, and will always be, truly loved.”

The cadence of those last words sounds odd, two voices overlapping, and Magnus notices a different face in the corner of the mirror, a memory within a memory. In the overlaid image Alec is smiling and sure as he spins his stele between the fingers of his right hand. His left hand is clutching a wrist too small and pale to be Magnus’. A familiar band shines from its place on Alec’s ring finger, the blue flames of a binding spell burning brightly in the dim mirror. The golden skinned hand on Alec’s bare should has a matching glow around the same finger.

The second image fades and Magnus’ reflection sighs and refocuses. He glances up at his own eyes and Magnus knows that his next words will be for him and not Meena.

“I know you’ll love her. I can’t imagine a single version of myself that wouldn’t love her. She- She and Alexander were my everything. Goodbye. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you.”

Magnus comes out of the spell with a shudder, tears streaming down his face and his heart in bleeding pieces. He reaches desperately for Alec, kneeling on the floor beside him, and pulls him into a tight hug to muffle the soul wrenching sobs that are ripping him apart.

“Magus? What happened?” Alec’s soft voice is like a balm to his wounds, soothing him and pulling him away from the edge of his other self’s madness and back to their familiar living room.

His world is happy and whole, his husband is alive and strong in his arms, but he can’t shake the sorrow in his reflections’ eyes. He doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the complete desolation in the message the other Magnus left for the woman he so loved.

He tugs himself out of Alec’s arms and turns to the woman on the couch. He does vaguely recognize her, although he can’t remember ever meeting her personally.

His magic aches with her sadness and he allows the wandering blue sparks to start breaking through the thick cocoon that is keeping her asleep and unaware.

He doesn’t know how she’ll survive the losses she’s suffered, or if there’s even any way he can help her, but he sends a silent vow another universe that he will do everything he can to care for her.  
She is his Meena now, entrusted to him by the dying wish of another Alexander, and that isn’t a promise he’s willing to break.

She gasps back to consciousness when Magnus’s fingers brush her forehead and Magnus prepares himself for the start of a whole new chapter in his life.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“So, in her world I’m dead.” Alec’s voice is completely flat. He’s staring intently at the drink in his hand but he hasn’t taken a single sip of it yet.

Magnus, on the other hand, is already three martinis into this shitshow.

Meena had come awake like a rabid animal and she’d only gotten worse when she caught sight of Alec, first running her hands over him like she couldn’t believe her eyes and then throwing him across the room in a fit of panic.  
Magnus had managed to subdue her enough to transfer her Magnus’ message to her and then get her in a bath before she could track mud and ichor and Angel-knows what else further into the loft. Now there was nothing to do but explain what he’d seen to Alec while they waited for Meena together herself and rejoin them.

“I got the impression that in her world everyone is dead, not just you. He said she was all he had left.”

“He. Her Magnus.” Alec is alarmingly stuck on that point. “And the message was his attempt at an explanation for this?”

“Actually, it was less like an explanation and more like a desperate goodbye but he did try to convey the important information. He did this against her will. He was most focused on saying things that would help her understand and forgive him.”

“And he didn’t say why he sent her through a dimensional portal, while unconscious because that isn’t stupid and dangerous, in a magical sedation cocoon? Or why she’s such a mess? Just that his Alec told him too?”

Alec isn’t processing this very well and Magnus is starting to get a little worried about how he’s going to react once it really sinks in. If Alec hears the same similarity in his next words that Magnus had he knows that his husband will understand the true scope of what they might be dealing with.

Magnus isn’t sure if he wants Alec to understand. He opens his mouth anyway.

“He said that she was, and would always be, truly loved.”

Magnus watches as the glass Alec has been holding drops to the floor and shatters.


End file.
